The present invention relates to a portable image display device for printed materials such as books, and more particularly to image display device and method having an open display function like a book as well as portability and suitable for displaying electronic sheet information.
An electronic apparatus for displaying electronic sheet information such as text or graphics on a liquid crystal display (LCD) device has been proposed. When the electronic sheet information is to be displayed on the liquid crystal display device, a currently available liquid crystal display device does not fully accomplish a role of books due to problems of resolution and portability thereof. This is because a limit in the present days LCD technology. However, in order to realize an image display device using the existing display system, it is most preferable to use the LCD which is superior to a CRT in the portability and the compactness.
A portable electronic apparatus which has two left and right open display screens which can be opened and closed in the same sense as a notebook and arranged closely to each other during the use has been proposed as an electronic apparatus having a book type display as disclosed in JP-A-3-217959, JP-A-4-355786 and JP-A-6183389.
However, those prior art apparatus only suggest a so-called dual-screen independent display mode in which the dual open display screens are independently used and does not pay attention to a dual-screen integral mode and a display function such as magnification or edition.
In general, a print medium like a book has a resolution to permit recognition of a very fine character, and when book information such as cartoon is to be presented in the form of image, a resolution equivalent to 24 dots square per character which is a standard in the existing printers is required. When represented at 24 dots squares per character and assuming that each character has a size of 3 mm square, the resolution is approximately 8 dots/mm=approximately 203 dpi (dots/inch) to meet the requirement to display the book information. However, when the LCD is used as the display device to take place of the book, it is not sufficient compared to the media like books in terms of easiness to view the display screen and the resolution. Further, with the current technology of the LCD, it is difficult to attain the required resolution in view of the manufacturing and packaging technologies. The books have various sizes such as BUNKO size, SHINSHO size, magazine size and newspaper size and they have an advantage of compactness and portability so that they may be read in commuter trains and are easy to carry.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide image display device and method for a side-by-side screen book type display which does not lose information derived from printed medium of book and which also has portability which is a characteristic of the book.
It is another object of the present invention to provide image display device and method which has a dual-screen independent mode and a dual-screen integral display mode and which can select one of those modes.
It is other object of the present invention to provide image display device and method which permits a user the magnification and edition of the display.
In order to achieve the above objects, there is provided an image display device comprising a record medium mount unit and a record medium driver unit for mounting a record medium having column image information recorded thereon as electronized compressed image data, a display unit including first and second display screens, an electronic circuit unit for reading a predetermined amount of record data from the record medium mounted on said record medium mount unit and supplying to said display unit, a console unit for determining a display mode to said display unit of the read data, and a portable and foldable book type main body for accommodating said units. The first and second display screens of said display unit are combined as dual-screen independent display screen and/or dual-screen integral display. Said record medium mount unit and said record medium driver unit are arranged in one of left and right sides of said book type main body and an electronic circuit board containing said electronic circuit unit being arranged on the other side. One of said display screens being arranged above said record medium mount unit and said record medium driver unit and the other display screen is arranged above said electronic circuit board. In the use mode, said book type main body being spread to permit viewing of the first and second display screens of said display unit and in the non-use mode, said book type main body is folded to fold the display screens over each other to facilitate the carrying.
There is also provided an image display device for mounting a record medium having column image information recorded thereon as electronized compressed image data and displaying the image data of said record medium in accordance with an operation mode of a console unit on a display unit including first and second display screens, comprising a circuit unit for decompressing a predetermined amount of data read from the record medium mounted on said record medium mount unit, a first memory circuit unit for holding the display image data decompressed by said circuit unit, a second memory circuit unit for temporarily storing the data of said first memory circuit unit directly or after thinning by a predetermined amount to fit to a display mode, a display controller unit for supplying the data of said second memory unit to one or both of the first and second display screens of said display unit in accordance with the display mode by said console unit, and a processor including the console unit for specifying the display mode of the data to the first and second display screens and a control unit associated with said respective units for conducting a dual-screen independent display control and dual-screen integral display control in accordance with the display mode. The image data of said record medium is displayed on the display screens of said display unit at a recognizable resolution in accordance with the display mode of said console unit and in any one of one-page two-screens display mode, one-page one-screen display mode and two-pages two-screens display mode.
There is also provided an image display method for mounting a record medium having column image information recorded thereon as electronized compressed image data, storing the image data of the record medium in a memory unit and displaying the data stored in the memory unit on a display unit including first and second display screens, comprising the steps of storing the first and second display screens of said display unit upon power-on and supplying and displaying the data of said memory unit on the display screens, supplying data A and B of different contents in the memory unit to the display screens for displaying on the two display screens independently and in portrait when a dual-screen independent display mode is set for the display unit by said console unit, supplying one of data A and B of the same content in said memory unit to the display screens for displaying the supplied data in the landscape when a dual-screen integral display mode to display on the display screens of said display unit as one screen is set, extinguishing the data display on the off display screen and displaying the data supplied to the other on display screen in portrait when the start of one of the first and second display screens of said display unit is turned off by said console unit, and changing the respective displays between the portrait and the landscape by said console unit.
In accordance with the image display device of the present invention, because of the provision of dual wide display screen LCDs, the display area and the resolution of the LCD are compensated.
Further, by using the dual LCD image screens as dual independent screens or one continuous image screen, the information of not only a small size book such as BUNKO size or SHINSHO size but also the information of A2-size like a newspaper can be displayed.
Still further, the display screen is spreadable like a book so that it is folded when it is carried and opened like the book when it is used. Accordingly, it is suitable for carrying.
Accordingly, the image display device of the present invention can be used as an image display device which takes place of a book without a sense of different medium, can display several books of electronic media information and provide the same compactness and portability as the book.
In accordance with the image display device of the present invention, dual wide display screen LCDs are used and only one LCD display screen may be used in magnification mode and the non-magnified display data may be displayed in the other display screen, or the display data which is displayed in one LCD display screen may be displayed in the dual LCD display screens to magnify the data so that the user can view the data which would normally be hard to view with the resolution of the LCD in a desired display style by the utilization of the display screens or the magnify/reduce function. Thus, a large volume of data such as magazine data may be displayed while compensating the resolution of the LCD.
Accordingly, the image display device of the present invention can be used as an image display device which can take place of a book without a sense of different medium and provide the same display functions as the book has.
In accordance with the image display device of the present invention, because of the provision of the dual wide screen LCDs, the display may be made in accordance with the spread pages of the book, and the image may be displayed in various styles on the LCD display screens such as portrait display or landscape display, or one-screen independent display or dual-screen integral display. Thus, the display may be made in accordance with the display data and the user may read the data in the desired display style and a large volume of data such as magazine may be displayed while compensating the resolution of the LCD.
Accordingly, the image display device of the present invention can be used as the image display device which takes place of the book without a sense of different medium, can display several books of electronic media information and provide the same display functions as the book has.